The invention relates to a windshield wiper device, particularly for a motor vehicle in accordance with the species of the independent claims.
Numerous windshield wiper devices are known, which have an electric motor drive that can be driven at a first speed and at a second speed. The first and second speeds of the drive correlate directly with the speed at which the wiper blades glide over the windshield of the motor vehicle. For this purpose, the normal windshield wiper device has at least two levels, particularly a level I and a level II, which correspond to the different speeds of the wiper blades on the windshield. In the case of precipitation, the vehicle driver or a rain sensor control device will switch the windshield wiper device in accordance with the strength of the precipitation to level I or, particularly in the case of heavy rain, to level II.
If the windshield wiper device has been switched to level II, i.e., the wiper blades are moving very quickly in a pendulum fashion over the windshield, the wiper blades can run dry as the precipitation subsides, i.e., wipe over a relatively dry windshield. Since in this case the wiper blade is no longer gliding over a film of water, the friction between the windshield and the wiper blade increases greatly and the drive is thereby put under a lot of stress. This leads to the drive overheating and in some circumstances to a total breakdown of the windshield wiper device.